The Wishing Well
by theslytherinpaladin
Summary: "Midoriya," Aizawa said slowly as if the sound of his name alone took ten years off his life. "I'm going to need you to run that by me again." "I said I need to punch Endeavor in the face." "That's what I thought you said."
1. Chapter 1

"Midoriya," Aizawa said slowly as if the sound of his name alone took ten years off his life. "I'm going to need you to run that by me again."

Izuku glanced around at his classmates as he rubbed at the back of his neck with his free hand. Anywhere but at Todoroki. He needed to look anywhere but at Todoroki. Not that it would make his situation any better. They had all heard what he said the first time. He could tell by Todoroki's choked laugh, Iida-kun's sharp gasp, Uraraka's quiet, "Oh, shit." He had tuned out everyone else's response, only focusing on those closest to him, but they had to have heard.

And Aizawa was making him say it again. Izuku's face burned, but he forced himself to speak around the growing lump in his throat, lifting his chin to meet Aizawa's steady red gaze. If he was going to die he might as well go down with his dignity was intact as possible under the horrible, horrible circumstances he had found himself in.

"I said I need to punch Endeavor in the face."

Aizawa let out a pained sigh that said he regretted every decision that had led them to that moment. His tone said he didn't get paid enough for the trouble they put him through. "That's what I thought you said."

None of them would be dealing with their current problems if Nedzu hadn't decided that Yuuei needed a dose of good publicity. Multiple villain attacks on Yuuei students had been the school's integrity in question, and Nedzu had been adamant in them showing that they would not be intimidated by the very people they were training their students to one day fight. They needed to show the public that Yuuei was not bothered by the attacks, that classes and events were going to continue business as usual. That the threats they had been reading about were not as dark or as frightening as they had been led to believe.

Their teacher had thought the whole business was a ridiculous waste of time, but because 1-A had made such a showing at the Sports Festival and had been the epicenter of more than one of the attacks, Nedzu had chosen them to be the first years representation for his plan. Nothing Aizawa had said or done had managed to get them out of it, and so they had found themselves meeting outside a local elementary school one Monday morning instead of in their homeroom.

They would meet with a few classes, answer student questions, show off their quirks a little to wow the kids. It seemed pretty routine, if time consuming, and most of 1-A had been excited for the chance to break up the usual monotony of the school day. With a few notable exceptions, of course.

For once everything seemed to be going as planned. The classes had been excited to see them. The questions had been simple things like their favorite flavor of ice cream or their favorite pro hero. One shy student had even asked Izuku about his favorite book series which had caused a tangent Aoyama had been forced to draw him out of with a sharp elbow to his side. They made it all the way to their final pictures with the students for Nedzu to post on Yuuei's website before something went sideways in the worst possible way.

"Bunch up a little bit closer now," the teacher said, waving a hand at the edge of the group. "I need to get you all into the frame." A boy at the edge of the group had moved closer as the instructed, but his foot must have bumped into someone else's. He tripped, hard, slamming into the person closest to him.

Unfortunately, that person happened to be Bakugou. The first grader took one look at Bakugou's perpetually angry expression and promptly burst into teary wails, struggling to right himself as he cried.

"I didn't do anything!" Bakugou was quick to say, backing away from the kid, his eyes wide. "It's not my fu-"

"Bakugou-kun!" Iida interrupted.

"It's okay, Hajime-kun. He's not mad at you!" The teacher had tried to console him, but he hadn't seemed to be listening. The sound of his crying grew, tears leaving long streaks down his face. Izuku had barely managed to take a step forward, wondering if he could distract the student from his tears, when a blue light filled the room.

Hajime's crying teacher sat back. "Oh, no. I was hoping it wouldn't come to this. He's been so easy to startle though, lately. I am so, so sorry, but it seems we've all been affected by his quirk."

The first grader's quirk, as it so happened, worked a little like Aizawa's in that it nullified the target's quirk. Unlike Aizawa's quirk though, there was no vision limitation. No time limit. No. To get their quirks back the targets must meet a condition.

They had to do something they really wanted to do but would never admit to. Something silly or embarrassing, never harmful. Something they had spent a lot of time thinking about. The targets always somehow knew the condition they needed to fill.

"He's just come into his quirk," the teacher explained. "They think he'll be able to undo the effects one day, but right now… He has no control over it at all."

What started as a fun trip ended in a silent ride back to, each student thinking about the task they had to complete in order to get their quirk back. Izuku had spent the entire drive sitting next to Todoroki, wondering if there was a way he could get around having to admit that apparently he was going to have to punch the number two hero in the face in order to get access to One for All back.

There was no good way for that inevitable conversation to go.

When they finally reached campus again, they were ushered back to their homeroom, their normal classes for the rest of the day suspended as they tried to work out how to fix their quirks with the minimal amount of damage. For some of the students their condition had been easy enough to meet. A blushing Kaminari had asked Jirou to go out with him after school. Yaoyorozu gave Aizawa a very hesitant hug. Todoroki had ran a quick hand through Izuku's hair without looking at him. (Izuku had been kind enough not to say a word, his own face burning just as much as Todoroki's).

From there Aizawa had picked students at random, keeping a list of who's conditions still needed to be met. Bakugou had argued for a full fifteen minutes before Aizawa had threaten to sit him out of training if he couldn't use his quirk. He had glared at Aizawa for another minute before reaching over to place a gentle hand on Uraraka's head before bolting for the door. Satisfied that he had fulfilled his condition, Aizawa didn't stop him.

His attention had turned to Izuku instead.

"Do I want to know the reason you apparently want hit a pro hero," Aizawa asked.

Izuku fought to keep his eyes trained on Aizawa. "No."

Aizawa watched him for a moment longer before nodding. "I'm sure that can be arranged. Enji won't like it, but he'll like the negative publicity it will get him if he refuses even less. Congratulations, Midoriya. You're about to ruin Endeavor's day."

 **AN:** This is going to be a three shot. Chapter two is already completed and will be posted next week.


	2. Chapter 2

Izuku was under no impression that the class would let him go the rest of the day without questioning why he had the secret desire to punch Endeavor, but he had hoped that he could at least make it to lunch before the interrogation began. Clearly he underestimated the amount of tact 1-A could collectively muster when there was gossip this important on the line. The moment Aizawa had finished going through the rest of the group's conditions he excused himself to settle his own with the promise that he would get Nedzu to arrange the meeting for that afternoon.

Iida had been placed in charge in Aizawa's absence, but there was nothing he could do to stop the onslaught of questions that started the moment the door slid closed. Seventeen separate voices drowned out anything he tried to say as he shot Izuku an apologetic look from across the room. He would never admit it, but he knew that Iida was curious about his reasons too. While they had both gotten closer to Todoroki after the Stain incident, Izuku was still the only one who knew the extent of the bad blood between Endeavor and his son, and no matter how idiotic it ended up making him look he was determined to keep it that way.

"You've gotta tell us, Midoriya," Kaminari said, leaning into his space with an almost maniacal grin. His excitement at Izuku's misfortune seemed to have made him forget his own embarrassment only moments before.

"Now, now, Midoriya-kun does not owe any of us an explanation. None of us chose our condition," Iida said in a last ditch effort to regain control over the situation. Everyone ignored him.

"You should tell us, Midoriya-chan," Tsuyu said. She hadn't moved from her desk, but her voice sounded clear above the rest of the class. A couple people voice their agreement. Even Bakugou had turned slightly in his seat to see if Izuku would answer. He and Uraraka had returned moments before Aizawa left, and if Izuku didn't care about his friends as much as he did he would have pointed out the fact that Bakugou had still been blushing while Uraraka had a smug smile on her face. Maybe that would have given him a few more seconds to figure out how he was going to get himself out of the mess he had found himself in this time.

Todoroki didn't deserve to have his personal life dragged out in front of all of their friends and classmates. Not like this, not when he didn't choose to share it. He had been let down by so many people he should have been able to trust, so many people who should have been there to protect him, and Izuku refused to add to that number. He could deal with a little teasing. It wouldn't be anything he wasn't used to, after all.

So he forced on a sheepish smile, rubbing at the back of his neck as he ducked his head down. At least he didn't have to fake the blush as he felt the eyes of his classmates narrow in on him. Todoroki's gaze burned, but Izuku very pointedly continued to refuse to meet it. He would have to apologize to Todoroki later when they weren't surrounded with the too curious gossipers that Izuku had once thought were his friends. Right now he needed to do damage control.

"It's-" He started, thanking All Might for forcing him into situations that required him to lie because he never would have gotten away with this otherwise. "It's silly."

"I'm sure it's not, Deku!" Uraraka said, still grinning.

Traitors. All of his friends were traitors.

"I barely remember it, it's really not that big of a deal." What would they believe? What kind of explanation would they expect from him. The longer he stalled the better, as he rushed to think through a believable reason. "I guess I'm still holding a grudge about this, even after all this time. It's so embarrassing." He forced a laugh and Kirishima smiled encouragingly.

"Just tell us already!"

Izuku looked up at the ceiling. He was never going to live this down. "Well. You know how I'm really into pro hero stuff?"

Bakugou snorted.

"I think that's an understatement," Shinsou said, "but go on."

The only thing that would have made this awkward moment even worse would have been having to pause awkwardly after Shinsou's interjection to avoid falling under his quirk's control. The former Gen Ed student had only been in their class for a few weeks, but Tsuyu had made sure he quickly joined in on all of the relevant class gossip. Thankfully he was saved from that obvious reveal by Todoroki's quiet, "Go on."

Izuku started to turn towards him, but faced the surface of his desk instead. "I met him once. I used to try to follow villain attacks, you know? Watch the pro heroes in person to see what I could learn about their quirks. It was so much easier to notice things when I didn't have to deal with blurry camera shots and shaky angles. It was that day he stopped the man with the transformation quirk, the one that had shifted and couldn't change back?"

He got a few nods in response. It wasn't one of Endeavor's more popular rescues, but there had been videos of it everywhere for a few weeks after. Izuku could remember watching the recordings over and over again, disappointed that he had only been a few streets away from the scene shopping with his mother. Back when he didn't know what a pile of flaming garbage the so called Number Two Hero really was.

"I hung around after. I was only elementary school, and I wanted to talk to him. See if he had any advice for me. I didn't even have to go find him. He walked straight towards me, and you know what he did? Told me to get out of his way. Endeavor was never one of my favorites. I always preferred All Might. Maybe he saw my backpack and decided that I wasn't worth his time since I liked his rival better. Maybe he's just as ass. I don't know. But it was the first time I was face to face with a pro and he brushed me aside like it was nothing." Izuku shrugged.

"And you think that's worth wanting to punch him in the face?"

"Aoyama!"

"What? It's a valid question, and I want all of you to take note of this because when we do superlatives at the end of the year I better not be the only one nominated for Most Dramatic."

"Superlatives?"

"Not the point, Sero."

Izuku shrugged. "I told you guys it was silly." So it wasn't the best story he could have come up with, but it was better than staring at them blankly while he thought up something else. That wouldn't have been obvious at all. "Ever since then, he just annoys me. Something about his face makes me mad." He pretended to think. "Maybe it's the beard? It's just so fake. Why would you make yourself a fake beard? Makes you wonder what else about him is fake."

The class roared.

"Never change, Midoriya," Kirishima said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Please. Never change."


End file.
